Compost is indeed a wonderful thing!!

I am so lucky to have such great neighbors!  They let me use their pickup to go down and get a truckload of compost.  Normally I'll get it by the bag (1.5 cu ft) in the Jeep.  But getting it by the yard ends up being half the cost of by the bag.  I can normally only get about 15 bags in the Jeep.  So I was all excited to be able to get so much!  My main reason for wanting some this winter was to mound up around the roses and around all the little trees we planted in the back part of the yard.  I of course had a lot left after getting those areas mulched with the compost.

First I would like to discuss the company I get the compost from:  Price Farms Organics.  Their stuff is so good!  This time I got the Barnyard Cafe, but I've bought the Zoo Brew by the bag and that is good stuff too.  If you go on their website and look over their offerings make sure you check out the video on the products page of what they are doing with The Ohio State University in the Zero Waste program - love it!.  Here is a few photos from my trip down to get it....

You can see the steam coming up off the darker pile..

Fluffing / Mixing it up before they put it in the truck...

Happy me getting a load of decomposed barnyard poo...lol

I just can't say enough good things about Price Farms, everyone that works there are always so very kind and friendly!  Prices are good.  I guess the only bad thing I can say is that I really wish they were closer to my house!!!  =)

Now on to what I did with all this good stuff....

Mounded around base of roses (until the hens scratched some of it down) then adding straw to protect the tops and add a little more insulation.

Every where there is a dark circle of compost there are tiny trees and shrubs planted... they are like sticks right now but a few years and the backyard will start looking a bit different. 

I added some around all the fruit trees as well... and yes our neighbor boy TP'd us and house across the street the other week... waiting for more rain today for it to finally come down - not happy that my yard looks trashy!

One cart load at a time... should have counted - but I'm sure at least 20-25 loads.
I like how you can see the birds on the brush pile thru the windshield.

One of my spring projects is to get this new bed done.  Added lots of cardboard to try to kill out the grass/weeds.  Adding dirt and some compost to it to hold down the boxes and start to build up the area.  LOT more dirt from the garden will be added next year.   Was just too hard to mow between the 2 rain barrel build ups, so figured I'd put some flowers, grasses heck maybe even some veggies in there!

Had to share cause it makes me laugh - when the girls see me they come running and it cracks me up - so this is the action shot of them running toward me.  Never thought I could love 2 chickens so much.  =)

Put some in the cold frame and as you can see the celery from last year is still doing really well in there!

Rest of it I added to one bed and then put straw on it for wintering over.  This will be the bed that gets the early spring plants so wanted to get a good head start on it.  As you can see the hens came in looking for worms and already tossed out some of the straw.  oh well... I have swiss chard under the small covered tunnel. 

That is about it for my composting weekend.  I have 2 compost piles of my own but they won't be decomposed for a while, so its nice to have a place to go to that you can get a good quality compost product around here.   You will be amazed at the difference adding compost makes to your beds.  I can't stress enough on how important it is to take care of the soil to make it healthy and rich - feed the soil and your plants will be healthy.   I think this weekend I'm gonna start some seeds in the basement (herbs) and throw down some spinach seeds in the cold frame as well to see how they do.   Might be winter but I can't stop gardening!  =)